[This “Individuality and Absurd Rebellion” series of posts introduces you to ideas you’ll find in Eric Maisel’s most recent book Redesign Your Mind. You can learn more about Redesign Your Mind here.]
It would be lovely if our efforts produced the results we craved. But life is not a romance. We opt for value, not rewards, we stand up, we assert our individuality, and we serve the good. If we’re also rewarded, we smile wryly.
Be the individual that you are. You could certainly choose safety instead. On some days, you likely ought to choose safety. But on those many other days, venturing out alone, say what needs saying and do what needs doing.
And be easier with absurdity than the next person. Individuals accept the reality of absurdity, we do not deny its demoralizing power, and we wish that life was less absurd than it is. But above all, we exclaim, “I refuse to let absurdity rob me of the freedom I possess.”
There was a time, for the better part of a hundred and fifty years, when public and private conversations about absurdity flourished in a corner of human discourse. Everyday people were not discussing it but we were, you and I, usually privately.
Mostly privately, we looked at life, shook our heads, and said, “How absurd!” How absurd that we should be given consciousness of our own mortality and made to feel terrible. How absurd that we should be born doomed—and know it!
How absurd that the details of your birth should matter so much. How absurd that you might come into the world burdened by ordinary looks, tyrants for parents, stubby legs, and a dismal outlook. Who threw those miserable dice?
How absurd that virtue was not rewarded. How absurd that the self-proclaimed righteous were so devious and untruthful. How absurd that the rich got richer and the poor poorer. How absurd that there should be upper classes and lower classes.
So much looked absurd that whole movements grew up whose sole agenda was to point out the absurdity of this or that: the absurdity of employing a word like “truth,” the absurdity of valuing art, the absurdity of political action, and so on.
Then we stopped thinking about absurdity, talking about absurdity, or factoring it into our calculations about life. We simply concluded that life was a cheat, included absurdity in that evaluation, and dropped the concept like a hot potato. Ah, but we must resume that conversation! We must chat about absurdity again—and grow easy with it.
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This post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: Shutterstock
